Assignment:
Using the textbook and external resources, create a short paper 2-3 pages in length,excluding References page and cover sheet, responding to the bulleted items below. Remember to use the APA formatting rules and correctly cite and reference your sources with APA format.
Create a document that includes the following:
• Brief introduction providing the background of the case, why you are writing and what is to come in your paper. This should only be 3-5 sentences.
• Perform a Porter's Five Forces analysis for your UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center, addressing each force in one or two sentences and defining the force, its impact (Positive, Negative or Neutral) on the Fitness Center and whether it should affect your strategy (Yes/No). (See Textbook, pp. 15-18 and Course Module 1.) Do not identify solutions or things that you are doing that would affect the factor. (The idea is to identify how the different forces affect the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center and how much.) This provides you with a view of the business that will allow you to select a Generic Strategy and a Strategic Business Area on which to focus your efforts.
• Determine which of Porter's Three Generic Strategies (see textbook page 20) that you will use to improve your UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center for the 21st century and explain why you selected it and tie it into the significant forces that you have identified.
• Using your analysis of the Fitness Center's Business Model (based on what you learned in Module 1), identify an important Strategic Business Area that needs to be improved. The Strategic Business Area is to be selected from the direct variables (explained in Module 1 and illustrated in the Walmart Example Case Study, page 3). The Direct Variables are: suppliers, competition, employees, location, organizational components, owners and customers. The Walmart Example demonstrates use of this concept, so you should review it and make sure that you are on the right track. Explain why you have selected that Strategic Business Area and how improving it will improve operation of the Center, including how it relates to the Generic Strategy you selected.
• Within the selected Strategic Business Area, identify and select a single daily process that is within and supports the Strategic Business Area that needs improvement. Note: A process is defined in your textbook as "a standardized set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer's order." (Baltzan, 2012, p. 20) (In Stage 2 you will model the AS IS process and the TO BE Process, and propose a technology solution to improve the process you identify here, so select a process that is appropriate for a technology solution.)
• At the end of your report with your References enter the following headings and complete the information using one concise phrase for each. You will be starting each subsequent stage by including this information as a method to keep us focused on the objectives.
GENERIC STRATEGY:
STRATEGIC BUSINESS AREA:
PROCESS TO BE IMPROVED:
In determining which process you select for improvement, be sure to keep in mind the remaining projects within this Case Study. You should review Stages 2-5 to get an understanding of the future projects that build on this initial stage and to aid you in selecting a process (and later proposing a technology solution) that can support the requirements of the follow-on assignments.
Do not start on Stage 2 until you receive feedback on this Stage as the Process that you select is crucial and your instructor may recommend that you change processes so that you can successfully complete the case. You SHOULD incorporate the recommended changes in all subsequent Stages.
The "right" and "wrong" answers have to do with whether or not you correctly incorporated the course concepts from the textbook and addressed all parts of the assignment. You need to do some external research on at least one aspect of the assignment - your choice - and incorporate it and cite/reference it in APA format in your response. The specific strategic area you select for a technology solution is not as important as that it makes sense in light of the course content and the Case Study and is well supported with your application of the course concepts and your external research.